Word of the Day Archive
Sunday May 12, 2013
feminacy \FEM-uh-nuh-see\
, noun:
feminine nature.
Educated even to learning, courageous even to a want of feminacy, she delighted to sport with ignorance and pretension, even in the highest places...
-- Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton, Ernest Maltravers, 1837
As they coached her in movements of preposterous feminacy, coaxing her to sit neatly and ease her muscles out of sight.
-- Paul West, The Tent of Orange Mist, 1997
Feminacy entered English in the 18th century from the Latin roots fēmin meaning "woman" and -acy, a suffix denoting nouns of quality, such as papacy and legacy.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for feminacy
